Some embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to an improved approach for implementing inserting rules-driven paragraphs into user-designated locations in a document after structural revisions.
Electronic documents can be composed using electronic publishing tools that support rules-driven assembly to conditionally bring in document components (e.g., paragraphs, clauses, etc.) that need to be inserted into the document based on the evaluation of applicable rules. Legacy solutions can place such conditional content at specific spots in the document (e.g., using a paragraph numbering scheme), however legacy solutions are deficient in that certain types of conditional placements do not survive review cycles. For example, the paragraph numbering scheme can break down if a paragraph is moved during the course of a review cycle. Legacy template-based solutions (e.g., using anchor points) are also deficient due to the likelihood that a document based on a template may be modified/re-arranged, with clauses and/or entire sections deleted (along with the anchor points) before the conditional insertion process is commenced. Indeed, some legacy approaches attach conditional components to existing content in the template using anchors (e.g., placing an anchor before or after a particular paragraph in the template), however if the existing content to which the anchor is attached is deleted, the conditional components become unanchored or lost, and the original user-designated location can be lost as well.
A solution is needed to insert rules-driven paragraphs or clauses at user-designated locations irrespective of modifications made to documents during revision cycles. Additionally, the solution should be scalable so as to be applicable to even very large documents. Therefore, there is a need for an improved approach.